A Penny Earned

Last week’s post by Josh Reynolds, A Penny Saved, riled lots of commenters who didn’t think dividing expenses into need and want categories was a very useful exercise. Most preferred to think in terms of cost and benefit. Andrew Nettleman, a North Carolina lawyer and blogger, agrees:

Don’t try to max­i­mize profit by min­i­miz­ing costs. Be smart with how you spend your money, but focus on max­i­miz­ing rev­enue even if it means increas­ing costs. If tech­nol­ogy allows you to increase your rev­enue pull the trig­ger on that new iPad. Josh was right that you don’t need high tech gad­gets to be a good lawyer. But don’t let the argu­ment go so far that you throw the baby out with the bath water. Costs are nec­es­sary. Rev­enue is the goal.

Sam is the founder and Editor in Chief of Lawyerist.com, the best place for lawyers to learn how to start, manage, and grow a law practice, and home to the community of innovative lawyers building the future of law.

2 Comments

What I ask myself is whether a purchase is truly worth it. Can I afford it? Is it better than the other things I’m giving up by choosing to spend my money on it? Is this the right time to buy it? Why is it suddenly important to buy? If there’s any element of ego involved, caution is advised.

That’s exactly what I hoped someone would say, and it’s especially true for the starting lawyer. The soul of the message was to not be blind to the concerns you express because you really want some cool new toy.